


Come Out Tonight

by Howlingdawn



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Coming Out, Gay Character, Gen, Male Bonding, Male Friendship, but not too much of course, i love them, my stubborn boys, this is hawk and charles after all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 05:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15502983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howlingdawn/pseuds/Howlingdawn
Summary: Hawkeye has a habit of setting Charles up with a lot of women. When Charles confronts him about it, he accidentally lets slip his darkest secret.





	Come Out Tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myglassesaredirty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/gifts).



> Ayo, wassup, so I was talking headcanons with myglassesaredirty and I got inspired because this is kind of how I came out to my friends. If my friend hadn't come out, I never would've, and I'd still be closeted (even in my own head) and miserable. So I guess this is kind of a kudos to LGBT peeps supporting each other
> 
> This is also my first M*A*S*H fic so here's hoping I got the characterizations right after slapping this together in, like, an hour

Hawkeye crouched outside of Rosie’s, hidden by a convenient jeep. He snuck a peek through one of the windows, scanning the crowded room. _Has she gotten to him yet? Wait, where is he? He didn’t leave- Aha._

Sitting in a corner table, a glass of whatever he could pretend was a fancy drink, sat Charles. Across the table was a pretty Korean working girl. She leaned in, doing everything she could to make herself enticing, but Charles was holding up a book, gesturing at its pages with increasing frustration as she looked increasingly bored.

Hawkeye sighed heavily, dropping his chin on the windowsill with a _thud_. _Why can he never put the damn superiority complex aside-_

The door slammed open, accompanied by Charles’s ranting tones. “ _Why_ I’m singled out by every working girl in this godforsaken excuse for a country- _Pierce_!”

Hawkeye froze in the middle of trying to crawl around the corner of the building. “Charles! Fancy meeting you here.”

Charles stormed over. Hawkeye scrambled to his feet, darting around the building anyway, for all the good it would do. “You!” Charles hissed, jabbing a finger at his chest.

“Yes, me! What did me do?” he stalled, glancing behind him.

“ _You’re_ the one who keeps setting all of these women on me, aren’t you?” Charles accused, pacing forwards.

Hawkeye kept moving backwards, dodging behind a neighboring building. “So what if I am?”

“So what if you- Your choices are _ludicrous_!” Charles exclaimed. “A nurse who likes _rock and roll_? An endless string of working girls? And that boorish woman who thinks beer is a fine drink?”

“Forgive me for trying to loosen you up a bit,” Hawkeye muttered. “At least they were all attractive, right?”

“Oh, attractive, yes, but not at _all_ my type-”

Charles cut himself off, eyes shooting wide. He seemed to stop breathing for a moment, suddenly looking everywhere but at Hawkeye, darting all around as if checking for bystanders. All color had drained from his face in a heartbeat, and he pressed a hand over his mouth, hard enough to whiten his face even further.

Hawkeye suspected it would look fairly green otherwise.

Or, at least, he _would’ve_ suspected it if shock hadn’t blanked his mind of anything and everything else. Because if not a single one of those women was physically Charles’s type – and Hawkeye had made sure to jump at any opportunity to switch up their looks – then that had to mean…

“Are- are you- Charles, are you gay?”

Charles started shaking his head vehemently – and that wasn’t the only part of him shaking. “N-no, of course not, I’m no sort of- of _abom_ -” he mumbled from behind his hand.

He was backing up, stumbling over his own feet, but when Hawkeye caught his arm, he froze. There was no force in Hawkeye’s grip, but maybe, even through his panic, Charles saw something in Hawkeye’s own expression. Something that, on some level, he recognized.

Hawkeye leaned forward, studying the area around them, around the building they now hid behind. It was night, the duo lit only by the glows from inside windows. A great din arose from the bar, and no one was leaving or entering it. Just as well. For both of them.

Leaning back into the shelter of their hideout, Hawkeye took a deep breath. Still, his voice came out hushed, stumbling over the words even though Beej had been helping him come to terms with it for months, ever since finding Hawkeye huddled in their hotel room, hiding from the sweetest, most attractive man Hawkeye had ever met. “Charles, I’m bisexual.”

Slowly, Charles lowered his hand. His mouth opened and closed, opened and closed, words failing him for the first time in far, far too long. Under his stunned gaze, Hawkeye pulled his own hand back, wrapping his arms around himself, suddenly wishing he could disappear. _This was a mistake, I should’ve let him run-_

But Charles’s next words, tiny and broken and so, so confused, blasted to bits any regret Hawkeye was feeling.

“You… you mean to say… I’m not- I’m not broken?”

And that gave him the strength to speak. “No,” he said fiercely. “No, we are damn well _not_ broken. I crack too many jokes and you’re too addicted to being all high and mighty, but _we are not broken_.”

“But…” Charles tried to protest. “But society…”

“ _Fuck_ society,” Hawkeye snapped. “Society is the reason we’re trapped in this hellhole, practicing meatball surgery to throw kids back into a battle they don’t want to be fighting. And if society sacrifices kids for- for whatever moronic reason they want, then _society is wrong_. Not us, Charles. Never us.”

Tears wavered in Charles’s eyes, one even slipping free. Hawkeye swiped at his own, offering up a smile to the other surgeon. “Who’d have thought we’d have something in common.”

Charles managed a laugh, broken and raspy, but genuine nonetheless. “ _Perish_ the thought.”

Hawkeye clapped a hand over Charles’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Look, we’re not touchy-feely dudes. Hell, I dunno if we even qualify as friends. But if you ever need to talk… I’m here. Beej’ll lend ya an ear too, if you want to trust him.”

Charles hesitated a moment, then rested his hand over Hawkeye’s. “I shall… consider it.”

“Great,” Hawkeye said, pulling his hand away, making sure his eyes were dry before starting to leave. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, you left a woman without a date.”

Charles rolled his eyes. “You are incorrigible.”

“Incorrigible and proud,” Hawkeye tossed over his shoulder, smirking.

Charles huffed, turning towards their tent, probably to go listen to more of that insufferable music and drive BJ insane. Happily, Hawkeye left him to it.

But, as they went their separate ways, he thought he heard a quiet, “Thank you, Hawkeye.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Life of the Party by Shawn Mendes


End file.
